


Old Friends

by dracusfyre



Series: Tony Stark Bingo Challenge [18]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Drinking Games, Featuring 30 Years of Friendly Rivalry, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Tony and Rhodey's 30 Year Reunion, look me in the eyes and tell me this isn't canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 12:23:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16040414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracusfyre/pseuds/dracusfyre
Summary: Tony calls Rhodey up to remind him that it's their thirty year anniversary.This is for my Tony Stark Bingo Square A4: Old.





	Old Friends

            “Rhodey! Platypus! My one true love, what are you doing?”

            Jim narrowed his eyes and looked at his phone suspiciously.  “Why are you asking? Is something on fire?”

            “You wound me,” Tony said cheerfully.  “Do you know what day it is?”

            He did, but he still checked his phone just to make sure.  “What’s so special about May 24th?”

            “It’s our _anniversary_!” Tony sounded scandalized.  “We graduated from MIT thirty years ago today.”

            “Holy shit,” Jim said as he realized Tony was right.  “Goddamn, we are old.”

            “Belay that talk, Colonel.  So back to my original question, what are you doing tonight? We need to celebrate.”

            Jim looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk and then at his watch.  “You know what, I’m not doing anything.  Where are you?”

            “LA.  Wanna grab the suit and come here, or should I come to you?”

            “I’ll come to you,” Jim decided. When they got off the phone, he notified Air Force command that Tony needed to do urgent upgrades on the Iron Patriot suit and that he’d be flying out to LA this afternoon.  The response was quick; after the incident with Hammertech and the Stark Expo, the Air Force hadn’t given him any pushback when he said that his suit needed repairs or upgrades.

            _Be there at 6,_ he wrote, closing the door to his office so he could change out of his uniform.  A few minutes later Tony texts back an address, and Jim barks out a laugh when he realizes that it was an arcade bar.

            When he gets there, parking his suit next to Tony’s, he goes inside to see that Tony already has 10 shots lined up at the bar waiting on them.  “Just like old times, right?” Tony said with a grin as Jim groaned.  In college, their preferred way to unwind at the end of the semester was to spend all night at the local arcade and go head to head on the arcade games; when Tony turned 21, it had become one of their favorite drinking competitions, with the loser taking a shot every time they lost a game.

            “Neither one of us is going to operate a suit when we’ve been drinking,” Jim warned as he picked up a shot glass of what smelled like Jameson.

            “I know, I know.  I’ll make sure you get home safely when you lose,” Tony said as he tapped his glass against Jim’s and tossed it back.

            “Oh, yeah? That’s what you think? It’s on, Tones, let’s go.”

           

            Two hours later, none of the other eight shots have been taken.

            Tony and Jim stared at the scoreboard on the skeeball machine, each wondering silently how they had gotten the exact same scores three times in a row.

            “How are we so evenly matched all of a sudden?” Tony said, scratching his jaw with a frown.  “I used to at least be able to beat you at Pac-Man.”

            “Yeah,” Jim said thoughtfully.  The manager had finally made them give up the Pac-Man machine after they'd been playing for over an hour.

             “Maybe it’s the suits,” Tony said after a while.  “They must have been sharpening our reflexes or something.” 

            “That can't be it,” Jim said, crossing his arms over his chest to give Tony a skeptical look. “I've been on more combat missions than you, so.”  He shrugged.  "Maybe we're just out of practice."

            Tony narrowed his eyes. “Are you implying that you're better in the suit than I am?” He said incredulously. “I _made_  the suit!”

            “Yeah, but you’ve also got JARVIS in your suit,” Jim pointed out.  “I don’t have a fancy AI to do all my targeting and flight calculations, I do them myself. _And_ you’ve been retired since Miami.”  

            They stared at each other for a long minute and then without breaking eye contact Tony called out, “Barkeep I'm going to need these shots to go. Apparently I gotta take War Machine back to school.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I know you can't get shots to go, but let's imagine shot glass sized to go cups with little lids. Heh. 
> 
> PS, all they do with the suits is argue about how to measure who is better with them until they eventually just get drunk in the Navadan desert and watch the sun come up.


End file.
